Backing up memory cards without a PC

[Andrew Smith]

I shoot with a D810 that uses a CF and a SD card. I rarely travel with my laptop and am always worried about losing images if the camera gets stolen or the cards fail when I am travelling. Does anyone know of a back up device that I can stick the card into and it copies to the internal memory or similar please? Needs to be compact and I would aim to back up the card daily so it must be able to take regular uploads etc. Thanks.

 

[Box Brownie]

There used to be and I think still are handheld battery powered devices with 2.5inch HDD and now more likely SSDs that have CF and again more likely now with SD slots to do that job.

But I have not much mention or advertising of them for a good while

 

[f/1.2]

Just buy a battery powered hard drive with an additional card slot like the the WD passport or buy an enclosure that has an SD card slot and use an existing drive if you already have one spare.

You could also use an Andirid/Windows tablet with an external drive.

 

[woof woof]

There used to be and I think still are handheld battery powered devices with 2.5inch HDD and now more likely SSDs that have CF and again more likely now with SD slots to do that job.

But I have not much mention or advertising of them for a good while

Yup. I have a backup device and it has a little screen too. You can also stick movies on it and use it as a radio. I haven't used it for years and like you I haven't seen any adverts for them for some time. I remember taking mine on holiday and plugging my 20D memory cards into it to automatically copy. It was a handy little thing and the screen allowed me to look at my pictures in a slideshow.

 

[4wd]

I did have a crude early version of a hard drive in a cigarette box-sized case and powered by AAs, the problem is you were never 100% sure they had really gone into it safely unless you could also look on it with a laptop or something. I expect slight improved versions of this are out there now.
It didn't actually accept a card you had to connect your camera by USB

 

[rob-nikon]

The easiest way would be to use the copy memory card function on your D810. Take a card out, put in another high capacity card and use the D810 to copy across the files you select to the new high capacity memory card. A third memory card is much smaller and less hassle than carrying another device around and doesn’t need an extra power source like a hard drive would.

Do you shoot to two cards at the same time? I do this but I try to have one card that’s very high capacity left in the camera and have smaller cards in the other slot that I take out and kept away from the camera (not in the same camera bag).

Personally I’m happy shooting to two cards and swapping out one of the cards on a bigger trip if I don’t have my laptop with me. If I was worried I’d get a third high capacity memory card to copy the data over to.

Memory cards are pretty stable and don’t fail that often. I’ve only had one fail in 12 years and that was caused by a memory card slot fault on a new used camera I’d just bought. I gather the most common cause of SD card failure is removing the SD card from the camera and putting it back in again.

A friend of mine has a D810, he puts RAWS in the SD card and uploads them to the computer via the USB. He puts JPEG’s on the CF card and takes that out to review them on his tablet. I gather CF cards aren’t damaged as much by repeated in/out of card slots compared to SD cards (there is the issue of potential pin damage occurring). I’m not sure of the exact MTTF for repeat cycles of memory cards in/out but for most it will easily cover the lifetime of the camera.

 

[AgentOrange76]

Thats interesting, wonder if copying a card can be done in Fujiland.

I use a larger card in slot 2 as a backup, the down side to having a card for each shoot would be the need for enough small capacity cards for every shoot, minimum 1 per day and if concerned about theft then would need 1 per shoot so 1 for morning and 1 for evening.

Im less concerned about the theft angle, my "memories" tend to be on phone which is backed up to cloud and I do take a 13" laptop with me on holiday so would back up daily any way.

 

[Sangoma]

I have seen an Arduino based device, and also a way to connect your phone to a USB hub with a USB hard drive and card reader connected to the hub, all powered by a powerbank.

There were some dedicated devices as mentioned with a screen, but I can't recall the name, however when I looked a few months back they did not seem to be available, and even thet were the same cost as a cheap laptop with an external USB drive.

 

[rob-nikon]

There were some dedicated devices as mentioned with a screen, but I can't recall the name, however when I looked a few months back they did not seem to be available, and even thet were the same cost as a cheap laptop with an external USB drive.

Years ago I had one of these devices but I can’t remember what it was called (edit: I’ve just.found it on google ‘Hyperdrive Colorspace UDMA3’). It had a screen and I added the 2.5 inch hard drive of my choice. It came in at around £300 with both the unit and hard drive if I remember correctly. Other than record to a hard drive it didn’t do much that modern cameras can’t do by copying to another memory card. To be honest I didn’t use it for that long and sold it on as I didn’t really have enough trips where I felt the need for it and it was a hassle making sure it was powered etc.

If anyones interested I wrote a ‘blog’ about My Backup System several years ago on Adobe Spark Page. I need to update it as I’ve since moved to a MacBook Pro laptop. That’s changed a few things but it’s generally the same now.

 

[JimDun]

My first thought was an SD card reader that plugged into a smartphone, and google says you can get them for a tenner or less.

EDIT: CF readers cost more though.